Here is another book I have added to the stack. I am from New Orleans so the Saints are my "Home Team" and Payton is my coach. I have been hearing some really amazing things about this book. I do realize though that they are coming from people who love Sean Payton and the Saints like no other coach and team. There have been raffles and lotteries for people to stand in line to get a chance to get a signature on this book from Payton. The bookstores in the greater New Orleans area are making a windfall on this book. With these things in mind I had to add this one to my list. I have heard him speak and I am always amazed at his ability to inspire people. I have had several people tell me that the book was really great so I can’t wait to read it and let you guys know what I think. Go get it today so we can talk about it soon!!!

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Hello Saints fans!!! I am from New Orleans so I always love to promote anything that has to do with my hometown. I really love to promote anything that has to do with the Superbowl Champion New Orleans Saints! Throw Drew Brees in to that mix and this book is a definite must read for me.

Coming Back Stronger is Brees’ story about how a shoulder injury nearly ended his career and how his determination and that of the city of New Orleans brought them to top of the world from the depths of depression. It is a story of resilience and survival and the underdog overcoming adversity.

I have heard Drew Brees speak before and he has an amazing ability to draw you in to his life and make you see where he is coming from. I have no doubt this book will be a great story to read.

The book is set  for release on July 6th and can be pre-ordered now for a July 6th delivery. I have no doubt it is going to be a bestseller and like its author go all the way to the top. Enjoy!

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I have been amazed at the items I have been seeing in the newspaper lately about the violence in New Orleans. I mean I am not delusional or anything. I understand that New Orleans is one of the most violent cities in the nation. Just because I know it is a fact doesn’t mean I have to like it.

When I see New Orleans I see the amazing architecture. I see the people who can’t walk past you without saying "Hello!". I also see the food and music that I have known all of my life. New Orleans is a place I have spent so much time my whole life. As young adults we didn’t have any qualms about walking through the city looking at the shops and the back streets.

The recent murders of residents and bar tenders makes it almost impossible to do that anymore with having some sort of self defense products on you. It breaks my heart that a city with so much charm and so much to offer could be so dangerous to the people who want to enjoy it. I miss the feeling of security we felt as teens and young adults. The city was a wonderful place for us to explore. We went to museums and old historic homes and restaurants and bars and enjoyed every nook and cranny of the city.

I can’t imagine that my kids won’t get to go through that ritual as young adults. They won’t know the city I grew up and loved. We live about an hour north of the city now. We love where we live and it has small town charm and the safety and serenity we needed for our kids. I hope to some day be able to show them around the city I love. It is such an amazing place to visit.

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One of my favorite types of books from Louisiana Authors are ones that discuss Cajun customs and traditions. My husband was born and raised in Lafourche Parish and his family has been in that Parish and Terrebonne Parish since the very beginning. The majority of his family still lives there and my children have spent many a day in LaRose with my mother in law. They know some Cajun phrases and use them often. I love the area and the language and the tradition and the accent. I take great pride in the fact that my children are Cajuns.

I found a set of books today from a lady who lives in Lockport, Louisiana. Lockport is part of my husband’s heritage just like grillots are. The lady’s name is Janet Foret Lococo and she has written 3 books about life as a Cajun women. Her first book is titled Cajun Woman: Pure and Simple and details her life growing up in the heart of Cajun country. She writes every book in jest and with a spirit of humor. She, like most Cajuns, just wants to make you laugh. Her second book is called Cajun Woman: Venus & Mars Collide and is a look at married life in the Cajun land. She jokes about her expectations and how they were vastly different then the reality of married life. Finally she wrote Cajun Mom: The Witch and the Kids. This final volume is about her life raising three kids. The title is a nod to a running joke her husband had of having her children wish her Happy Mother’s Day on Halloween each year. She also says it was chosen because her children believed she was the wicked witch for most of their young lives and she only became the good witch when her first grandchild came along.

I haven’t read these yet but I am going to be getting the whole set and hopefully if I am lucky and can pull some strings I can get my copies signed by her. Lockport is a small place and my husband’s family is known in the area and own the Lockport Motel. Perhaps I can use some influence to get them signed. I love the topics of these books as I know very well what it is like to be married to a Cajun man. I hope some of you will look in to getting these books also and learning about some of the most unique people in Louisiana. Enjoy!

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I thought I would pass along the issue I experienced today as a by-product of being on the outer bands of Hurricane Ike. We have always been either very far from or right in the middle of the eye of a hurricane. This was our first experience on the outskirts. I awoke this morning to find that there were major issues in the New Orleans Metropolitan area because Ike was pushing waters in to the rivers, lakes and bayous of Louisiana and causing them to over top the levees. Let me explain the difference between over top and breech. Over top means the waves are pushing water over the top of levees that are not high enough to keep them in. Breech means that the levees break and the water comes through the levee. Breechs allow water to pour in to homes uncontrollably. Over tops let water splash over in amounts that can then be pumped back out by city pumps. 

Now that I have given you a lesson on levee issues these were not the issues that I faced. We don’t have levees North of Lake Ponchartrain because we aren’t below sea level. We have large pine trees and tornadoes. I have never experienced tornadoes but I know they occur all around me all of the time. The issue was that school wasn’t canceled but we were under tornado warnings so should I send my girls to school. I finally decided to send them. I worried all morning and finally around 12:00 I decided to just check them out before the rains began. When my 5 year old got in to the car her first response was "Mom we learned how to duck and cover!" I was shocked. I found out they spent the whole morning in the hallways of the school because of tornado warnings and that they were taught what to do if a tornado were to hit.

Who knew that my kids would learn more than ABC’s at school today? I finally decided that it was a lesson that they needed to learn. I was wishing I would have kept them home from school this morning but now they know what to do if they are caught in a situation where a safe place just isn’t available.

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I told you guys a few weeks ago about how I have been working on tracing my family tree. One of the problems I have found is that you can’t access public records on the Internet very easily. I have found that my greatest task has been trying to match up families through Marriage Records since Louisiana doesn’t have those readily available without going to one of the libraries that have access to the databases. I quickly realized that you can pay usmarraigerecords.org a fee and they will give you access to the information you need. The fee included instant access to all of the records you search for. How is this helpful? Well I can’t tell you how many hours we have spent in the library photo copying public records. The time saving aspect  is worth the fee alone. When you add to that the fact that you can do all of your searches from home it is really priceless.

My family started out in Virginia and then moved to Tennessee which is where my grandfather was born. His parents moved to Louisiana when he was young so we have a pretty vast area to search looking for family. My great grandfather was quite the character and I have loved finding his story. He was married the first time to my great grandmother and then the second time to a character of a woman just like him. His second wife was a New Orleans débutante with an affection for Schnauzer’s and alcohol. Her money afforded her the best of both. I remember as a child visiting their home on the outskirts of the Audubon Park and being greeted by hordes of Schnauzer roaming freely in their home. They had turned this beautiful and stately New Orleans mansion in to a pet house. It was the one memory that stood out most from my visits with them as a child.

I have found many other equally exciting members of my family and it has been a joy to spend time learning about them and "meeting" them. I highly recommend family tree research to those with the stamina. It has been a labor of love in my family that has been ongoing for years.

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The very last thing my husband and I did before Gustav interrupted our lives was to attend a New Orleans Saint’s Pre-season game. We both love the games and we were discussing how we would love to be able to get season tickets for the whole family. Unfortunately there are 5 of us and it just isn’t feasible right now. However, I think we can swing tickets for a game or two this season.

I decided to check on a new site I found called Stubpass.com to see if they have any tickets available. You can go to their site and check by event type and also check by team. You can get  New Orleans Saints and Pittsburgh Steelers Tickets. You can check by game and they give you the prices and the number of tickets available at that price. I really like that they give you the section where the seats are located and also a map of the stadium so you can see where the seats are located.

 I have been trying to hard to find things that we can do as a family. We love to watch the games on television and I can only imagine that the kids would have a great time seeing one in person. I don’t really think it matters how close the seats are because the excitement of a game is enough for them to have a ball. As a matter of fact, when we went to the last game we used tickets from my husbands company and they were suite tickets. Well it was hard for me to enjoy and follow the game because I couldn’t see the big screen that shows you all of the information. I kept having to ask my husband what happened.

As it turns out stubpass.com has a bunch of tickets available for the game this Sunday in the Superdome between the New Orleans Saints and the Tampa Bay Bucaneers. Most of them are up in the Terrace but they do have some of the better tickets available too. I would love to do this game but I think we may have to plan ahead and do one of the next games because we are still getting things back in order from the storm. I am glad to know that there is a place to go to find tickets and they have a guarantee that the tickets will be valid and that you will be refunded if the event gets canceled. This is a much safer way to buy tickets than to do it through one of the auction sites where you never know if you are getting tickets that are good. I think I will plan this as a surprise for my husband and kids and buy them all outfits for the game too. I can’t wait to see their faces.

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One of my major concerns about staying home through Gustav is that my grandparents were here with me. The are in their 80′s and I was concerned about how their health would hold up through the storm and the stress. The issue is that they probably wouldn’t fair very well on a long car trip either so we decided to keep them here with us. I can’t tell you how many times during this storm that I wished I had a blood pressure monitor for them. I was very concerned about the effects the stress was having on their blood pressure and health in general. They were diligent about taking their medications and we made sure to keep them cool and hydrated. They will be going home today because they have had power restored to their home. I am so glad they are going to be OK after this stressful event.

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Here I am! Finally back on line from the storm. We have survived it very well. We still don’t have electricity and aren’t really sure when we will have it back. We do have a generator though and it runs my whole house. No cable. We just got back our phone and INTERNET so that should cure the boredom. The clean up around my property should cure my need for those diet pills I was looking for recently. I have been drinking a lot of water and the heat makes me not want to eat. We do have A/C as of yesterday though so it is getting better every day. Thank you guys for the well wishes and prayers.

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On this the 3rd Anniversary of Katrina I just want to take a moment to write a remembrance post for my uncle and aunt who passed away in the storm. They were unwilling to leave their home and ended up perishing when the flood waters from the 17th St. Canal put 8 or more feet of water in their home. It is very surreal that we are preparing for another storm on this day. The one thing it has taught me is that I have to make sure that everyone I know has options for where they are going to go. If you guys get a moment today to say a short prayer please remember Luke & Anna Mae Bonono who dies in the Lakeview Area of New Orleans on or about August 30th from flood water related to Katrina. Thanks guys for indulging me for this moment!

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